The massive serpent watched him with eyes like wet blades, its body undulating across the forest floor in slow, deliberate coils. A grotesque smile twisted along its split mouth.

[Frankzaroth, the Great Serpent (Beast Lord) – Lvl 83]

"I let you believe you were in control. That you could strut through my territory like you owned the place. But now…" The creature slithered forward, muscles rippling beneath its dark scales. "Now, it's time to act. Your days of peace are over."

Luke was still processing—not the threat, but the fact that the thing was talking.

"So, you could speak this whole time?"

"No." The serpent's voice oozed through the trees, thick and slow like tar. "I marked you the moment I saw you near this place. That mark makes you my prey. It also makes you able to hear me."

The beast slid around him, a river of flesh and scale. Its tail scraped across rocks and roots as it began to circle. Luke was now inside the coil.

"I waited. Patiently. I knew you'd come. You're a pest. A damn parasite in my backyard."

Luke kept his voice steady, though he was already calculating every possible escape route.

"If you understand me, then maybe we can negotiate. I'm not here to fight. I just want to activate the third mechanism and get the hell out of this world."

The serpent paused. Those glowing yellow eyes fixed on him like searchlights. "Oh, but here's the thing… I'm 'trapped' too."

Luke blinked. "Well, that's a fun coincidence."

The serpent lowered its head until its snout hovered just above the earth, far too close for comfort.

"The place I came from… there was nothing left. I devoured it all. No prey. No scent. No sound." The forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air. "But here? I feed. I hunt. I rest. If you humans ever escape this realm... they'll send me back."

It moved closer. That horrible grin widened until it looked like its face would split in two. "Do you understand what that means?"

Luke stayed silent for a breath, then nodded once. "Yeah. I get it now."

"Good," the serpent hissed, eyes gleaming with sick pleasure. "The regular hunt bores me now. But you... oh, you'll be fun."

It reared its head and unleashed a roar that shook the trees to their roots. Everything collapsed into chaos. The Beast Lord lunged, a living wall of scales and raw force, crushing trees like twigs as it closed in. Luke sprang into the air just in time, barely avoiding the death trap. But the serpent's head came whipping out of the shadows, glowing slits of fire locked onto him.

Midair, Luke hurled an acid potion with all his strength.

"Ha... hahaha…" The serpent's laughter boomed like thunder. "That? That's water to me."

The acid sizzled out on its hide without leaving so much as a mark. Luke hit the ground running, Dash already activated. Behind him, the forest shattered. The serpent tore through trees like paper, its jaws wide with primal hunger. Artemis said nothing, but he could feel it. She was panicking too.

He leapt again—and Charlie appeared beside him. Together, they landed on the serpent's back, using the impact to gain a brief window of control. Charlie started charging a Power Punch.

Luke, moving in sync, channeled stamina through his kukris—Force Infusion at max output. He plunged both blades deep into the monster's flesh. But it didn't flinch. With speed that defied its size, the serpent whipped its head around, those ember eyes burning straight into his soul.

"Human... Do you really think that tiny blade can pierce me? And even if it does... do you think you can strike where it hurts?"

The serpent lunged forward like lightning.

"Now!" Luke shouted.

Charlie activated Steel Fist + Power Punch, slamming her fist straight into the creature's face. Its massive head recoiled from the blow, eyes burning with fury as it stared them down. The forked tongue flicked out.

"My turn to play," the monster growled, its voice even deeper now—darker, more menacing.

It struck like a thunderclap. Luke rolled to the side just as the serpent's head snapped forward in a lethal strike. It missed him by inches. He bolted into the forest, weaving in a tight zigzag. Behind him, the Beast Lord thundered through the trees like a living avalanche.

"Think. Think. Think!"

He leapt over a coil of the serpent's own body. Black mist erupted, swallowing the clearing. From within the darkness, dozens of shadowy figures darted, sprinted, leapt. The serpent lunged at one—Luke's figure—but the instant its head struck, the mark vanished. And then reappeared... on all the others.

"Clever," the Beast Lord growled.

Luke flickered through the fog, phasing in and out while feeding mana into the cloud, expanding it farther and farther. Then the serpent opened its jaws. And what came out made Luke's stomach drop.

A torrent of corrosive acid spewed forth, dissolving trees like sugar in hot water. The ground hissed, steaming and blackened. Smoke billowed in thick clouds. It wasn't done. With a single exhale, the serpent unleashed a gale-force wind, tearing through the forest and blasting the entire field. The mist was scattered like dust.

Luke was forced to rematerialize. And then he heard it.

"You're not leaving this place alive."

The serpent lunged, mouth wide, fangs gleaming like twin spears, devouring everything in its path. Luke dashed, shadow-step zigzagging through the debris. But there was no cover left. Nowhere to hide. And then—impact. Charlie came down from above like a meteor, Power Punch activated. Her strike smashed into the serpent's side, knocking its head off course. She'd saved him. Barely.

Luke didn't hesitate. He charged forward, kukris flashing. Steel bit into scaled flesh, strike after strike, his movement a deadly dance. The serpent roared and spat upward. And the sky began to rain acid. Where it landed, the world burned.

Luke sprinted through the haze, slipping on hissing mud, his muscles screaming in pain, lungs burning. "It's healing"

He saw it.

The damn thing had accelerated regeneration.

The serpent lunged again, fangs wide. Charlie burst into flames, activating Berserker Mode, and hurled herself directly into its open jaws. She disappeared inside. Luke ran harder than ever before. But the Beast Lord still had him. The magic mark. It tracked his mana like a beacon. He flooded the forest with more fog, spreading it in every direction, trying to break the trail.

"You thought... that would work?" The serpent exhaled again. The mist scattered. Then saw something.

A plant, dozens of them. Glowing marks spread across the forest floor, pulsing softly. The Beast Lord hesitated. Looked around. More marks. Everywhere. The forest shimmered with false targets.

"Clever," it hissed. "But not enough."

It opened its mouth wide and swallowed. Trees. Stones. Whole chunks of earth disappeared into its maw. If it had to devour the entire forest to find him... so be it.

***

Luke was far off, both in body and mind. His muscles ached, his skin burned where droplets of acid had landed during the downpour. He drank a healing potion to dull the pain and recover some HP, but the sensation of being eaten alive lingered beneath the skin.

Worst of all, there were no more escape routes. Masking his scent wouldn't help. Staying still wouldn't help. Hiding wouldn't help. He'd been marked. The creature knew. Even if it didn't see him, even if he lay in perfect silence, the moment it got close, it would feel him.

In the distance, he could see the cave—his former shelter. Now guarded. The serpent was there. Silent. Waiting. It knew. He'd managed to escape before only because he'd reacted fast enough. The Beast Lord had been tracking his mana signature, and Luke had used his Plant Growth skill to scatter decoy flora he'd been nurturing for days, all imbued with his mana. It worked. Once. That trick wouldn't work again. The Beast Lord had caught on.

"The damn thing spits acid," he whispered.

And then, like a dagger slicing through flesh, the memory came back. Princess Charlie was dead.

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"So now what?" Artemis asked. "How are you supposed to fight that thing?"

Luke didn't answer. His gaze was locked, distant, thoughts spinning like blades in a hurricane. He was trapped in this hell. And now being hunted.

"The stomach of any living being contains acid... to digest what it eats," he began quietly. "The stomach acid of snakes is much stronger than that of humans. They don't chew. They swallow whole. Then their acid dissolves everything, flesh, bone, everything."

"And...?" Artemis pressed.

"Charlie's made of metal. And even she didn't survive. That thing's acid is beyond anything natural." He was pacing, the tension in his body sharp and constant. "If I get swallowed... I won't last three seconds."

One of his backup plans for killing the Beast Lord had been to get swallowed intentionally and attack from the inside. That idea was now completely off the table. He stopped. Leaned against the crumbling wall of a ruined structure. Slid down into a crouch. He was exhausted. And out of options.

The monster had marked him the moment he got too close to the exit of the zone. It hadn't waited in the cave. No, it waited at the gate. Made sure Luke saw it. Made sure he knew he couldn't leave. It wanted him to understand. It wanted to crush him from the inside out.

"It acted like a predator..." Luke muttered, voice hollow. "And I... I'm the prey."

He was locked in. Caged. Bound to the serpent's territory by invisible chains.

"In my world, some people keep snakes as pets," he said quietly. "They feed them rats. But the snake... it prefers the rat to be alive. They like it that way. They enjoy the fear. The panic. They savor it before the meal."

He looked up. "And that's exactly what I am right now. A rat, locked in a snake's cage. And the monster knows there's no way out."

His eyes shifted in the direction of the creature.

"Even if I hole up inside some building, the moment I fall asleep, it could swallow the whole place with me in it."

And melt him alive. He sat down, fingers pressed to his temples, trying to think. Trying to breathe. Trying to keep the surge of adrenaline from turning into poison in his chest. His heart was racing. Not from the immediate threat, but from what came after. The inevitability of it.

At some point... the monster would get him. And when it did, there'd be no more tricks. No more time. No more hope. The Beast Lord was faster. Stronger. Tougher. Luke clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms. His mind had already reached the conclusion his heart was still trying to deny.

"I have to kill it... or I die."

Silence hung heavy for a moment.

"Do you... have any idea how?" Artemis asked.

"Not a damn one," he muttered, his voice dry, fatigue beginning to settle like a weight in his chest.

Luke opened his interface. He still had a lot of unassigned points.

Should I dump everything into Strength?

But then he noticed a forgotten notification.

[New Profession Skill Available!]

"Oh... right. From when I hit level 25."

For a second, his gaze flicked away from the horizon—where the Beast Lord still loomed, unmoving, watchful, like it knew all it had to do was wait. Luke took a slow breath and tapped the notification. Five options appeared.

He wasn't expecting a miracle. Profession skills weren't combat-oriented. They were support, utility, long-term potential. Not the kind of thing that saved you from getting devoured by a mythic serpent. Still... maybe taking a moment to focus on something else would help. Break the spiral. Force his thoughts into a new direction, however briefly. The first option popped up:

[Altered Seed (Uncommon)]: You can cultivate plants with slightly modified traits, adjusting their effects, growth behavior, or appearance to your will. A foundational step in the biological manipulation of flora.

Probably showed up because of that skill to turn plants into seeds.

He moved on to the next one.

[Phytotoxicology (Uncommon)]: Grants broad knowledge of poisonous plants, including identification, safe harvesting, and advanced extraction techniques. Ideal for crafting poisons, antidotes, and complex toxic compounds.

"Useless," he said under his breath.

Luke skimmed the description without much interest. His current [Herbology of Mother Freya] skill, a rare Ancient-tier ability, already gave him deep understanding of plant toxins—everything from subtle paralytics to outright biological destruction.

Leveling that knowledge up? He had zero desire to go down the poisoner's path.

[Plant Manipulation of Mother Freya (Rare)]: Similar to one of Mother Freya's own abilities, you can mentally control plants you've cultivated. They must be within your perception range and respond to your will as extensions of your body. The complexity of control depends on the bond of friendship with the plant.

Another skill tied to Mother Freya. For a fleeting moment, he'd hoped it would be something magical—acid immunity, maybe, or some game-breaking counter to a giant snake. But no. These were profession skills, not combat ones.

Luke exhaled slowly, trying to center himself.

[Spy Plant (Rare)]: You can project your consciousness into a plant you've cultivated and marked, allowing you to observe its surroundings through its senses. Ideal for surveillance, ambush setups, or recon without putting yourself at risk.

"Shit..." he muttered.

It had potential. But realistically? Seeing through a marked plant... when the enemy was a building-sized serpent he could already spot from half a mile away?

"What the hell am I gonna do with that? Watch the bastard stretch and do forest yoga?"

He dragged both hands down his face, tension flaring up again like a second heartbeat.

"Reading these is just stressing me out more…"

He sighed and flipped to the last option.

[Botanic Meditation (Rare)]: Your Meditation skill is enhanced when used in natural environments. Forests, open fields, and other areas rich in plant life greatly boost the regeneration of mana and stamina.

Good... but redundant. He already had the base version. And right now? Swapping the chance at a fresh skill for a slightly better recovery boost wasn't the kind of gamble he could afford. Luke reread the descriptions, but the sound in the distance shattered his focus.

The serpent was still hunting. Roaming the forest, tearing through trees like paper. Sooner or later, it would start circling back toward the city. And once it did, it would find him. He needed to move. Now.

"Mother Freya…" he murmured, eyes locked on the skill list.

This wasn't a well-thought-out choice. He didn't have time to be clever. But if he was going to die, he might as well die following the path he'd chosen.

[You have acquired the Profession Skill: Plant Manipulation of Mother Freya]

I'm not strong enough to take that thing on. That monster was made to be fought by a full party of high-level people.

Fighting something like that alone was suicide. Doing it while under-leveled? Worse than that. Then Luke's eyes settled on a spot in the city.

Artemis groaned. "Oh no... Don't tell me you're actually going to do what I think you're about to do."

"Do I have a choice?" he replied.

His gaze fixed on the dome in the distance—the one tied to the mission at the Sanctuary of the Stone Echoes.

***

Allison and Mason sat inside the inn room. Mason had settled into a chair in the corner.

"So, how are things back at the Haven?" he asked.

"You know, same old mess," Allison replied, her voice casual.

She raised a finger and pointed at the door, signaling without changing tone. Moments later, a shadow slipped under the door and coalesced into the shape of a woman. Evangeline stepped fully into view.

"Relax," she said. "Kruger's not here."

Both Allison and Mason exhaled in relief.

"What are the odds he'd show up at this exact inn?" Mason asked.

"Just bad luck and worse timing," Evangeline said. "I tailed him through the streets. He's headed downhill. As a precaution, I sent Jerry to keep an eye on him."

They'd had to improvise the moment Allison spotted Kruger. If he was anywhere nearby, there was a chance he could've used some skill to eavesdrop. So while Evangeline shadowed him, the rest had kept up appearances.

"I had no idea what role I was supposed to be playing," Mason said, still a little tense.

Allison glanced at Evangeline. "Yeah, well... I'm not telling you the code she made me use on Bob."

Evangeline chuckled. "Hey, if one of Bastion's spies with super-hearing was around, that would've made for a hell of a bedtime story."

All three glanced at the rug in the center of the room. Mason nudged it aside with his foot, revealing a trapdoor. Beneath it, a narrow staircase led downward. They climbed down and sealed the hatch behind them. Below was a storage cellar converted into a meeting space. A small group was already waiting—trusted people, each of them.

"Took you long enough," Quinn muttered.

"We thought something went wrong. Mason didn't say a word," Miranda added.

"Ran into a complication. Had to stall in the tavern," Allison explained.

Everyone was geared up. Storage crates lined the walls, packed with equipment and supplies. They were preparing for a long journey—first to the dungeon under the wall, and if things went well, straight into the orc forest. The mission: take down the Orc Lord.

Since Marshall's death, things had spiraled. Bartholomew's faction now held the strongest grip on local power, and that was a problem. Everyone there knew the King of Bastion had no intention of activating the mechanisms. With Marshall gone, there was no one to distract the king's assassins.

It was only a matter of time before those blades turned toward the Haven. These were its core members. And this, not the Haven itself, was the safest place to meet. Bartholomew had eyes and ears everywhere back there.

"How are the others doing?" Allison asked.

"They've been in the dungeon a few days now. No casualties so far," Byron said, "but without a proper healer, progress is slow."

They'd handpicked the team. The goal was to help as many of their own level up as possible, and the dungeon under the wall was perfect. It was the same place Allison and Luke passed through before entering the city—far from Bartholomew's influence, ideal for farming gear, weapons, and experience. And after that? The expedition into the Orc Lord's territory.

Thanks to Luke, they had a forecast of where the Orc Lord might be—somewhere near the mountains. Without the Orc General to guard him, the path would be more manageable. Only they had that intel. No one else would even consider entering the orc forest.

"The best time to go is now," Mason said.

"For safety, I'm not going with you just yet," Allison told them. "I'll meet you later."

Until they confirmed exactly what Kruger was doing here, she wasn't leaving the Haven.

"Fair enough. I won't argue," Mason said.

Like Allison, he came from noble blood and had joined their side early on. He also had a network—people who wanted to return to Earth and could be trusted with what they were planning.

Things had moved fast after Luke left. Allison had stepped up, using her noble status as leverage. Everyone in the inner circle had already visited the second fortress and suspected Bartholomew was sabotaging it from the inside. But believing Luke was innocent? That was another story entirely. He'd claimed responsibility for Angelica's death and vanished.

Still, somehow, that made them more determined. Most thought Luke was working with Bartholomew now. Regardless of the truth, the people of the Haven had made their choice: they no longer wanted to be pawns of Bastion's king. They wanted a way back home. And for that, they needed power.

The expedition was their best shot.

"So how exactly are you going to leave the Safe Zone without raising suspicion?" Gilbert asked.

"I'll figure something out," Allison said, eyes locked on her inventory screen.

One item glowed faintly among her gear:

[Dragon Queen's Necklace (Ancient)

Description: Forged by order of the legendary Dragon Queen, this necklace was created in alliance with the most powerful draconic mages of her era. It is part of a mystical set that includes ten enchanted rings, an ancestral suit of armor, and the royal sword. The necklace holds the essence of the Queen's metamorphosis. It is said that assembling the full Dragon Legacy unlocks the path to a treasure lost for millennia. However, only someone from the Queen's bloodline—the Rhiannon family—can wield the artifact safely.

Enchantments: [Gender Polymorph (Ancient)]: Allows the wearer to transform into the opposite gender. Requirement: SoulBound.]

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